You may be aware of a newpaper article which has appeared in The Times Ireland Edition which has made an argument that the GAA at central level, has applied funds to the Dublin GAA communty (beit through the Clubs or the County Board or through the Leinster Council) in a manner which has resulted in the recent successes of the Dublin Senior Intercounty Football team.

You may not be aware of an interance made by a Statistitian on Twitter inferring that these payments are totally disproportionate when measured against any other county. This is now about to become a major issue on GAA media and would, if not countered by the County Board, cast a shadow over the wonderful achievements of our Football team last Saturday.

Even as dedicated and long standing fans, we find terms like “development grants” and “development officers” to be vague terms.

We dont doubt the amounts of money which are alleged to have been spent (its all there in the GAA annual report) but we would hope that the County Board would issue a statement showing why this money is needed, how it is spent, where it is spent and how it relates to the concept of “registered players” - does this term include all underage players, does it include all school teams?

We would also welcome a robust rebuttal of the inferance that these grants and payments are awarded to the County Board or the Clubs on a different set of criteria to those outside of Dublin, and a clarification of what the criateria actual is, and how these funds are applied for in the first place.

We would also welcome clarification on the issue of the “Sports Council Grant” which is alledged is awarded by the Irish Sports Council to the GAA at national level and which is then passed in its entirity to the Dublin GAA community. Is this the case, and is it possible to, again, show how and why this is the case and how and why it is being applied.

There are other matters which we know the County Board would wish to address and deal with at this happy time for all of us Gaels in Dublin, and it is saddening that we feel motivated in raising these issues. However, we are fans and we are emotional and sensitive to this sort of thing. We get hit with these sort of arguments all of the time (espicially those of us who live outside of Dublin) and after four years of it, we would like to be able to point to some statement or to some document which rebuts this issue once and for all.

The Ewan MacKenna article has been torn to shreds on twitter. His analysis of the figures are completely incorrect but in his defense Ian O’Riordan and Keith Duggan have also made the same mistake in the past. Padraic Duffy has previously commented on this matter. Dublin receives less on a per capita basis than the average.

Annual financial report for 2014 shows capital netting more than the other combined 31 counties

The sub-heading is for clickbait

“Games development
Around 18 per cent of that revenue (€9.5 million) goes back to games development at provincial and county level, which is where Dublin’s €1.46 million jumped out.
Many of the smaller counties (Leitrim, Longford, Monaghan, etc) received just €39,000, although GAA director general Páraic Duffy was quick to point out that this was not comparing like with like, highlighting the fact Dublin employs its own coaching and games administrators, while in all other counties they are employed by the province.
Other counties in Leinster, for example, would have their games development paid from the province allocation of €1.63 million; yet Duffy agreed there was still something of a discrepancy.
“This is not a new issue, and has come up for the last number of years,” he said. “Dublin has employed a huge number of coaches the last number of years. Of course we are trying to get the balance right, but it will take time. But we also cannot expect to treat Dublin the same as we would very other county, given the population.”

So Dublin gets €1.46m from a national pool of €9.5m, that less than what we are due on a per capita basis.

Sean Moran makes the same mistake as he overlooks the allocations to provinces…and provinces are after all made of of counties.

Success of GAA investment in the capital causing growing concern in rival counties

Page 52 of the GAA financial statement outlines all payments to counties. What is in question is the Games Development money. Dublins share of this €9.5million is paid directly to Dublin while other counties receive in both a county allocation and from the provincial allocation.

Ewan just writes articles he gets paid for. He has no interest in debating but gets very defensive when what he presents as facts are shown to be clearly misunderstandings (on his part).

Ewan writes " the GAA handed over €1,460,400 to the capital in a games development grant, more than any province" in his Times article.

Page 52 of the financial statement show this to be false. Ulster, Munster & Leinster (minus Dublin) receives more in funding. Dublin does receive more than Connacht but County Dublin has twice the population of Connacht and on a per capita basis Connacht receives far more.

He misinterprets how development grants are allocated (in fairness he was not the first). Dublin receives a block allocation, while other counties receive a smaller allocation and development is carried out on a provincial allocation.

after what he describes as ten years on the topic i cannot accept him having any minsunderstandings in relation to this topic. its driven by an agenda, simple as.

and, since i cannot quote his article in full, the language he uses to describe the way the team acted on getting Sam, the deliberate repeated use of the term “manufacured” for the hurlers and his idea to split dublin in two being the solution all point in one direction only, and it is not (in my opinion) one of impartial journalistic observor.

since i cannot quote his article in full, the language he uses to describe the way the team acted on getting Sam

Yeah its a funny one - if they showed any more emotion when getting interviewed they would be arrogant - The other side of the coin is the Tipp lad loosing the head and throwing out the F word - the sky would fall in if one of the dubs did that !

Guys Dublin has a very sensible policy of not engaging people who have no credibility. When you engage with McKenna and his ilk you merely allow yourself to be dragged down to his level. No one with any influence either within or without the county pays any attention to people like him.

And you needn’t worry about money. For as long as Dublin does its business properly and there is a visible result the money will be forthcoming.

The DCB quite correctly gives these people no oxygen and therefore I would actually oppose any public statement. It only fuels the fire.

Your point about the post factual world is worth making. It seems accepted or acceptable these days to express your opinion by either ignoring the truth or wilfully misrepresenting facts. They should be challenged on it.

Lot of folk presenting prejudices as principles these days.

But I can see the DCB saying fučk that, we’ve better things to do than respond to a loon. Him, not you.

Dublin got 15% of Development funding as it has 25% of Population, to Promote the games, and would have much bigger competition from other sport compared to rest of country. When you compare like for like with other counties, the average investment is actually fairer.

We just don’t invest it in Stadia or Centres of excellence that supports only one team. We’ve invested it in Developing the game, not the Look of the Game.

his biggest problem is that Dublin GAA is now a commodity for HQ; full houses in Croker, revenue generated to local business’s on match day etc. etc…

I once had an argument in Arrnotts about no Dubs jerseys with Áth Cliath on them, and was told that Foreign visitors had the highest purchase rate of jerseys over Irish buyers.

There is another agenda at play here I think. There is a feeling outside the capital that we should not be getting this level of funding when we are such a ‘commercial entity’ and can generate the sponsorship we do, ie we should fund ourselves. I would be happy to at least discuss this when every other county fully divulges their ‘external’ revenue sources and the exact nature of all of their expenditure.

Also and alas we can only dream of our own Centre of Excellence some day. Many counties have these Centres of Mediocr … I mean Excellence. We can but dream of such facilities … and excellence …